These considerations may guide us in an analysis of the
legacy which we have received from our parent society—the civilization of
Ancient Greece. First, has Ancient Greece transmitted to us anything comparable
to the physical and psychological legacy of an individual human parent to her
child? This is a difficult question for us to answer, just as it is difficult
for members of the same family to appreciate the 'family likeness' between
them. A Moslem or Hindu or Chinaman could judge better than we. But it is
certainly possible that the comparative similarity of climatic conditions and
the comparative unity of racial stock has created a closer relationship between
these two societies than between either one of them and any other. The poetry
and philosophy and social life and political institutions of Ancient Greece and
the Modern West may conceivably constitute a single species when contrasted
with the institutions of other civilizations. A modern West European or
American may have a greater innate appreciation for Homer than for the Old
Testament or for Sokrates than for Buddha or Confucius. The parallel which
historians so often draw, or imply, between the conflict of Ancient Greece with
the Ancient East and that of the Modern West with the Modern East may rest on a
real kinship between the two Occidental civilizations as contrasted with their
respective Oriental neighbours. But this is uncertain and on the whole
unprofitable ground. When we come to the 'subconsciously chosen' type of
legacy, the analogy with the relationship between parent and child becomes more
evident.

Legacies of this type from Ancient Greek society are
prominent in the Middle Ages—the childhood of modern Western civilization which
followed the 'Dark Age' crisis of birth. One of the first needs of our young
Western society as it struggled to its feet was a symbol of its unity—something
corresponding to the attainment of self-consciousness by the individual human
being—and for this it borrowed the last constructive idea of the Ancient Greek
world. The mediaeval 'Holy Roman Empire' had quite a different purpose and
function, in the childhood of modern Western civilization, from the purpose and
function of the Roman Empire in the old age of Ancient Greece. But the young
civilization did not think of inventing a new institution for its individual
needs. In its subconscious pursuit of its own development it conceived itself
to be reviving one of the customs of its venerable parent. The political thinkers
of Charlemagne's day never imagined that the idea of world unity could be
embodied in any other form.